What is a third officer?

[Mo Docherty]

finish watch then ring 4 bells was a pain fellas

[Des Taff Jenkins]

John
The first mate forgot to ring the bell when he let go the anchor to take a kink out of it when I was in the chain locker stowing it, it rang my bell
Des

[j.sabourn]

That used to be my job as well early in my seagoing days. Looking back at a later date when I had access to ships plans , I always remember that the chain lockers on the 10.000 ton tramp were described as self stowing ? Balls ! I had to stand down the forepeak store , chain locker door open pushing the heap of chain over with a Long handled broom before it jammed up the lot so the ships particulars should have read self stowing with the aid of a broom and one dispensable person. Also the lengths of chain on each anchor were only 8 and 9 shackles . Offshore supply vessels carried 29 or 30 shackles on each and never had to have a man with a broom stowing . Cheers JS

[Mo Docherty]

on subject of mooring I remember using munro shackles to fasten anchor cable to mooring buoy and not using reducing links on buoy for small vessels,also port and stbd anchor chains different sizes,meaning eg port had 7 shackles stbd had 8

[j.sabourn]

Remember what the joining shackles were called ? Kenter links .1 cable Length = 15 fathoms =90 ft. 8 sh = 720 ft.
Offshore vessels 30 shackles = 2700 ft
Least amount to put out for a safe mooring was considered 3 times the depth of water.
The old method of tying up to a rig was dropping an anchor usually about 3 cables off , now these cables have absolutely nothing to do with anchor cables are a measurement of distance and 1 cable = 600 ft approx. There are 10 cables in a nautical mile = approx. 600 feet 1 nautical mile =6080feet. Don’t get them mixed up or your in trouble will have to pay for all the damage you do and the overtime won’t cover it as you don’t get any. Your French measurements wont do you any good here. So Britannia still Rules the Waves . Cheers JS

[Barry Peck]

Hello,

I found this cutting in the papers of my late brother Frank Bramhill (ex Ellermans and British Rail cargo ferries). You may find it of interest.

Frank got his master's ticket in the early 1960s but had to leave the sea owing to chronic seasickness. He then worked at Harwich Navyard, Shoreham, Greater London Council, Buoywork at Amlwch and Ipswich Port Authority before a spell as a crown court usher and retirement.

Will

Added for reading hopefully!

Attachment 36237

Reading through some of the responses to this I am saddened at the oil and water/upper class working class comments still. I went to sea in 1961 and was third mate for two years before rising to C/O. I very rarely came across these sentiments, and when I did I used to be bemused by engineers who thought they were working class and the mates weren't. I also came from a working class background and in those days had trouble working out what they were talking about. By the end of the 1960s it had died out as far as I could see and we were all a ship's compliment working together to get the ship around, and frequently became good and lasting friends. Notably, one of the best ships when I was cadet had a park bench on the deck outside the officers' smoke room (don't ask, it was a long story!) and in good weather the engineers used that instead of the duty mess and we all had our liquid lunches together. It was a very happy ship with none of the prejudice being reflected in some of these posts.

[Ivan Cloherty]

[QUOTE=Barry Peck;419918]Reading through some of the responses to this I am saddened at the oil and water/upper class working class comments still./QUOTE]

I think you may be reading too much into it, during my time at in the MN 50's/70's there was comments twixt oil and water aboard ship most was banter, and we shared a beer at the ends of our relevant watches and went ashore with our counterparts

[Johnny Kieran]

I was ashore with a third mate in Antwerp once, along with others, in a bar called Danny's bar. Some blonde bird asked me to dance, but within seconds I realised it was a bloke, so let go and steered clear. Later, I saw the third dancing with it, and before I left, told him "watch out, it's a bloke". Next morning I asked him what happened? he said he'd thought "sod it" and spent the night with it. He blamed the drink, and seemed not one bit bothered by it.

[j.sabourn]

#26 They May have done it every day Fouro and you may have answered it . At 1200 hrs every day at sea the telegraph was put from Full ahead to Full astern and back to Full ahead as a time check for 1200 hours , also a check that the goblins hadn’t got to work taking the telegraph to pieces I suppose . JS .

[Ivan Cloherty]

I was ashore with a third mate in Antwerp once, along with others, in a bar called Danny's bar. t.

I think every young lad who joined a ship on the E coast of UK the next loading port always seemed to be Antwerp before setting off on the ocean crossing. All were taken to Danny's Bar to learn the facts of life, no one I knew ever went astray in there, I was prewarned by a friendly AB 'women don't have Adams Apples be careful' I was 16 at the time looking about 12, an asset which proved useful on the WCSA when selling cherries